Foxcatcher (2014)

 

FOXCATCHER (2014)

By Ralph Santini - ****

                Bennett Miller’s third narrative film “Foxcatcher”, one of its year’s 10 best films, has a triumphant debut for brilliant performances by both Channing Tatum and Steve Carrell, both of them, way against type as, respectively, Mark Schultz, a gold-winning champion of the 1984 Summer Olympics in L.A. and John Eleuthère du Pont, a philanthropist heir to the millionaire Dupont family fortune who had a wrestling training facility known as Foxcatcher Farm. For those who don’t know about the premise of this film, it is based on a true story about Dupont’s sudden recruiting of the Schultz brothers, the other one being David (played again with great passion by the usually reliable Mark Ruffalo) who shared the same honor at the 1984 L.A. Olympics.

According to what I’ve learned from this film is that Dupont knew about both Brother’s abilities of their championship in the previous Summer Olympics so he decided to call these brothers to not only train his wrestlers at Foxcatcher Farm and represent the farm’s team but to also use an ambition to help him represent the United States and win the championship for the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. What’s more about Dupont is that aside from being a millionaire, philanthropist, coach and sports enthusiast, he was also a passionate ornithologist, and a devoted philatelist.

The true story from Dan Futterman and E. Max Frye’s script perspective begins with Mark speaking at an elementary school in Dave’s place even if Mark considers his efforts superior to that of Dave’s. When Mark is called by Dupont he is summoned to approach his Foxcatcher Farm in Pennsylvania for the purpose of requesting his services from him and his brother of training his wrestlers at that facility as his ambition to use his “Team Foxcatcher” for the World championship and pay them a considerable allowance. They of course accept their offer and Mark is offered to live in Dupont’s restful guest house where the owner greets and cradles him to make himself at home.

From winning Gold the 1987 World Wrestling Championships, representing themselves as The United States team, to Mark and Dupont’s befriending, something doesn’t seem to go right during the process. It turns out that Dupont is, plot wise, a shady cocaine user and even lets Mark use it as well.  On top of that his mother (a wonderful but brief appearance by Vanessa Redgrave) hates wrestling with a passion and it shocks her seeing her son practice the sport and later when he catches his team taking a day off watching Mixed Martials Arts he gets riled over it. All of this can lead us to some adrenaline, gripping events that might come out in this great film.

                I’ve never seen such surprisingly fine acting from two actors that seemed to suffer equally from frequent typecasting, Tatum as hot, muscular “good guy” in “Step-Up” style films and some unsatisfying action films and Carrell in so many silly comedies as a Loser-type “Nerd” but anyway this film tells how much they wanted to liberate themselves from those types of roles. Mark Ruffalo is also equally terrific as Dave who would do anything to support his loving brother at all odds. But the assets of this film is not only the bravura acting of this film but also the way director Bennett Miller quietly crafts this Drama as if nothing tragic will happen, even if might sooner or later. But that is going to be up to you to find out what could happen in this film, because it’s one hell of a genuinely thrilling gem from beginning to end.